User Experience Master Class

Last week, I attended a Master Class (organized by the TU Delft and Exact Software) where the goal was linking "designing successful products that people love to use" with "designing great software" to achieve a great user experience.


Looking back at the class, I think the ground rule should be clear: (try to) understand your customer! That way, you can create better products, products that are in line with the needs of your customers, have a lower failure risk and a higher customer loyalty.

The diversity of the attendees (Product management, Functional design, Marketing communications, Consultancy, Customer support, Product line manager, Software engineering, Product marketing) was very good. It gave insight into the different perspectives of different people.

During the Master Class, we met with very passionate, expert lecturers that presented their area of expertise and mixed it with a hands-on element. We had to visualize our development process, make collages, personas, mindmaps, observe other people (outside of the classroom), make prototypes, discuss personal items that are connected with an emotion, etc. The hands-on elements were really great, because some it put us in the 'customer seat' instead of the 'developer seat'.

Everyone who attended the Master Class was really energized to start working with the methods and concepts. Already a few ideas have started, more is to come. Hopefully we can convince our collegues and management we really need to use available techniques to come to a better user experience of our products.

Image credit: James Garrett